CALEB NICKERSON
GATINEAU Feb. 7, 2018
For many young people in their late teens, politics is a rather abstract concept. For many of them, this year’s provincial election might be the first time they are eligible to cast a vote. But for a 19-year-old from Bristol who is seeking the Parti Québécois (PQ) seat in the riding of Chapleau, politics is a passion.
Blake Ippersiel was born in Rouyn-Noranda but was raised in Quyon and Bristol and attended L’école secondaire Sieur de Coulonge.
Currently studying cinema at CEGEP in Gatineau, the teen plans to attend university to study political science or history in the future. He previously worked on campaigns in the Pontiac with both the Bloc Québécois and the PQ in the 2011 and 2014 elections.

“I’ve been involved, it’s been six years now,” he said. “I wanted to run as a candidate in the Pontiac but because of my realities with studies I have to stay in Gatineau.”
Ippersiel said that the official nomination process won’t take place for several months and as far as he knows, he is the first to declare his intention to run. He said that politics was something that he grew up discussing around the dinner table with his parents, Mario and Carole.
“I’ve always been interested in politics, I think my parents brought me into it,” he said. “I think it’s important because it allows you to make changes in society and work for what you think is right … They didn’t influence where I was heading on the political spectrum, just interest in general.”
In addition to knocking on doors and making calls during campaign season, Ippersiel currently serves as the President of the PQ’s Outaouais youth council.
“I was [attracted] to the Parti Quebequois because of the sovereignty project in particular,” he explained. “It’s a social democratic party and it stands with my values.”
He was critical of the Provincial Liberals and what he saw as a glut of spending and tax cuts in the run-up to the election.
“If you look at the statistics and how they spend their money, they made a lot of cuts in social programs but they invested more this year than the other years combined,” he said. “They invested more in social programs this year than what Quebec has made in money. So that means the money they spent on social programs is actually money that they cut from the most vulnerable persons in the last three years.”
He said that though he is young he has received a lot of support from those in his circle, including the youngest woman to ever be elected to the National Assembly, 25-year-old PQ MNA Catherine Fournier.
“The only responses that I’ve had are encouraging messages,” he said. “When you know that new people are coming into the game, it means that there are people interested in it. We see that there’s passion behind it and it’s not only for a career.”
Despite such youthful zeal, Ippersiel will have his work cut out for him. If he succeeds in becoming the PQ candidate – which is far from a done deal – he will be running in a riding that has been held by the Liberals since it was created in 1981. Notably, over 70 per cent of the population voted against sovereignty during the referendum in 1995.
With Quebec heading into an election this October the PQ is currently polling in third place, behind the incumbent Liberals and the surging Coalition Avenir Québec, who look increasingly like the party to beat.
Ippersiel said that he thinks his party’s large base of young members will be an asset in the coming months.
“There’s definitely a new wave of young people,” he said. “[The PQ] reshuffled their cabinet recently to give more responsibilities to younger people. I think age is not an issue in that case because they do it with a passion and they have more experienced people to back them up.”